The use of electronic financial transaction (EFT) cards such as credit cards and debit cards continues to play a vital and significant role in today's economy. Customers may use EFT cards to purchase goods and services from a vendor, to withdraw cash from an automated teller machine (ATM), or perform other financial tasks. For many types of EFT cards (such as cash withdrawal cards), a customer must enter a personal identification number (PIN) to successfully complete the transaction, while other transactions may require signatures to be accepted (e.g., higher value credit card purchases). As EFT cards have become more and more ubiquitous, so has the infrastructure for supporting the use of EFT cards in commerce, resulting in increased use of credit card authorization machines and ATM machines. A customer may now, for example, use a conveniently-located ATM machine to withdraw cash from an account or, in another example, purchase their groceries either with a credit card or a debit card.
For an automatic transaction (i.e., without human merchant involvement), the ATM machine may typically read the customer's ATM card, request authorization for the customer's withdrawal from the customer's bank, and dispense the cash once authorization has been received from the bank. For a merchant transaction, the merchant may typically swipe the customer's credit card in a credit card authorization machine, which may then transmit a request to purchase the good or service via the requested amount of credit. Once approval of the credit is received from the credit card provider, the merchant may then charge the credit card for the desired amount and complete the transaction. The functionality and prevalence of EFT cards are likely to continue to increase and more people acquire the cards, more people use them for different types of transactions, and as competition between EFT card providers intensifies.
Often, however, a customer may desire for someone else to perform a financial distraction on their behalf. A person that cannot leave their house, for example, may want someone to run an errand for them that requires use of an EFT card, such as going to withdraw cash or purchase groceries. In another example, a parent may wish for their child to make a transaction that the parent has authorized, such as purchasing gasoline or books for school. To have someone else perform these tasks with their EFT card, the customer must provide the EFT card and possibly the PIN number (depending on the nature of the transaction) to the other person so that they can complete the task. By providing the EFT card and other information, the customer runs the risk that the other person will use the EFT card for inappropriate purposes, such as if they purchase additional items for themselves or steal cash from the customer's account. One solution to this problem is for some customers to acquire a limited-purpose EFT card, such as a credit card associated with a gasoline company, in the hopes that this will limit misappropriation of funds. Such a solution, however, does not provide a satisfactory solution in many cases and is also itself subject to abuse, such as when children exchange purchases for others with a gasoline card for cash.